Time not completely wasted.

What with the freezing cold and the sub zero temperatures, I remained housebound for most of the weekend.  While I would have normally gone visiting at the hospital, aunt had to have an additional surgical procedure to clear up an afore unnoticed wound on her arse.

Knowing she would be completely out of it, I opted to stay home and visit when she would know I was there.  After the medical staff discovered it- (indeed there was an infection) I asked her if she had noticed it before.  She said- yeah- it may have pinched a little.  Hopefully she will find herself back to normal in a day or two.

On Friday, cousin bought herself a steak because her regular schedule of activities was disrupted by MLK day.  Knowing that she often microwaves whatever meat she cooks, I asked her if she had ever tried to use the oven.  She said "I tried it once but it made a terrible mess that I had to clean up."

I waited.  I pondered.  Do I or don't I?  Finally I asked what did you put it on to cook it?  Answer:  I just put it on the grill of the oven.  Glad I asked.  I offered the suggestion of a cookie sheet with some aluminum foil on it.  She said "you always give me such good tips when we are together."  Note to self- always ask.

While I am not making fun of her- she's mentally impaired.  But her way of knowing and looking at things always surprises me and sometimes it just does make me laugh.

The time at home was put to good use.  I've written about a week's worth of high school sub plans for when I am gone.  I have a mental arrangement of the several weeks to follow.  After hearing wise advice from those who have gone before, I'm going to plan for four weeks out and if its more hopefully by then I'll at least be able to write sub plans after 4 weeks.

And finally I entertained myself (and possibly found another way to communicate information to high school students) using an app called Doodly- it's an app for a laptop not a tablet and it creates those groovy cool white board drawings you see people use.  You can record your voice over the animated slides and the final product is an mp4 file that can be edited with additional sound.

Full disclosure- the text I used came from another teachers video on youtube.  I didn't feel like writing all of the information.  Actually- it's not the exact text- I mostly just borrowed the organization of the ideas and wrote my own text.  I haven't finished it but I saved it and posted it so far just to see what it would look like.  I think it will crack you up.




There is a two hour delay tomorrow- I'll spend my extra time writing lesson plans so I don't feel so guilty when I want to spend all of my time exploring the possibilities of this fun little tool.

One final note- there has been a slight uptick in comments lately and I just want to acknowledge and say thanks.  I miss the days when blogging was all the rage and we would banter back and forth but it's nice to know everyone's still out there.  Now to go read 101 cookbooks blog and find some white pants.